Satwik-chirag pair finishes runner-up: India’s top men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty faced a heart -breaking necklace once again when they lost in the final of Kim Won in the final of the China Masters Super 750 Badminton Tournament here on Sunday and Sio Seung JE’s Korea’s Korea’s Korea’s number one lost in a straight game against the world’s number one pair.
The Asian Games champion Indian pair were expected to end their title drought in the final but despite making a strong lead of 14-7 in the first game, they lost 19-21, 15-21 in straight games in 45 minutes in the match.
The pair of Satwik and Chirag appeared in the second consecutive final. The Indian pair did not lose a single game throughout the week after winning the second bronze medal at the World Championship and being runner -up at the Hong Kong Open. But despite being in a strong position, they will definitely be sorry to lose the first game.
Kim and Sio have come together again in the session after experimenting with other partners. The pair was playing in their ninth final of 2025 and had already won six titles including the World Championship gold and the title of All England and Indonesia Open Super 1000 in Paris.
The match was considered to be a fight between the world’s best invasion and the best defense and Kim and Sio won by performing better patience and technical skills.
The Korean team made a good start to take a 3–0 lead in the first game but the Indian pair made a comeback with a strong smash and scored 6-6. The exact shot on Chirag’s net gave the Indian pair a 11-7 lead by break and soon they reduced it to 14-8. However, there were some mistakes. The failure of a video challenge broke Satvik and Chirag’s rhythm and the Korean pair won the score of 15–15 by winning eight out of the next nine.
Chirag’s mistake on the net gave the Korean pair a 19–17 lead, but the Indian pair made a comeback to make Sio’s mistake 19–19. Left -handed Kim achieved the game point with a sharp winner shot and Chirag then hit the shot out to win the first game by the Korean team. In the second game, the Indian pair took a 3–2 lead and then scored 8-6. The Korean pair gained equal to 9-9 and managed to lead a point until the break.
When the game resumed, Sio hit the net on the net, but at the very next point, he gathered points on Satvik’s weak service. The Korean pair gained a four-point lead on a score of 15–11 by Chirag’s shot out again. Sio put a flat shot at the next point but Chirag missed again and the Korean team was ahead 17–14.
A great drop shot made the Korean team lead to 18–15. The Korean pair achieved five matches points after Chirag’s shot out twice, after which Satwik hit the title out of the Korean team. (With language input)
